The Prince and the Pauper
by shinobipopcorn
Summary: Ganondorf, Prince of Hyrule, catches a thief stealing from the pantry. It is a young golden haired boy, dressed in rags bearing Gerudo emblems...
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: A little AU I cooked up for ganlink week prompt 6 "prince and pauper". Ganondorf is the prince of Hyrule, Zelda's grandson, and Link is a street rat raised by the Gerudo. It is mostly a friendship fic. I decided to continue this because it is very fun to write. Enjoy!**

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"Highness, we've caught a thief in the pantry!"

Ganondorf, Prince of Hyrule, stopped his spar with the trainees and came over to the guards. They were holding a small teen, dirty and malnourished. He was draped in rags carrying designs of the desert tribe. Scratches covered his arms and legs from the scuffle with the guards, and a small amount of blood formed a line from his hair to his chin.

"What's this, the Gerudo rats have started taking in tramps; or were you so desperate for clothing that you were willing to bear their emblems?" Ganondorf snorted at the sight. He hated the Gerudo, ever since he learned how they cast out his mother for falling in love with the son of the Hylian queen Zelda. Both of Ganondorf's parents thought such a relationship would help mend the rift between the two cultures, but instead it deepened it. And now the one male born every hundred years was on the other side.

The thief said nothing, but peered up through his dirty blonde hair at the prince. Yes, he was trying to steal. It bothered him how the very clearly Gerudo prince could forget his heritage, in favor of those who had oppressed their people. Was he ignorant of what really happened?

The prince scoffed at the disrespecting glare. "If he won't admit to his crimes, throw him in the dungeons until he does. But be mindful, if he really is with the Gerudo, there will be others nearby. They never travel alone. Don't tell anyone else that this prisoner is here."

"Yessir!" the guards chimed, and began dragging the thief away. Sparing one last glance, Ganondorf noticed something on the thief's left hand. It was wrapped in a bandage, but poking out from the top was a dark marking resembling the tip of a triangle...

Prince Ganondorf waited until nightfall to visit the dungeons. The fewer people that knew about his suspicion, the better. He slipped down the dark passage with barely a sound, and found the boy in the last cell, laying on a plank attached to the wall. Ganondorf knocked on the wall to get his attention. "Boy, tell me why you were stealing from the pantry."

"...Isn't it obvious? I wanted to be imprisoned."

"Why? What are you planning?"

The boy sighed as he spoke. "Hylians treat their prisoners as humans. They get a place to sleep, two meals a day, and don't have to worry about being cooked to death in their sleep."

Ganondorf was stunned. "If you think I'll fall for a lie like that, thief, you are sorely mistaken..."

"My name is not 'thief', it's Link. I wasn't lying. And I didn't actually steal anything, that would be rude. I was hungry, but it was not my right to take others' food."

"So, your name is Link... I suppose that means the marking covered up on your hand is the Triforce," Ganondorf said with a sigh. "Grandmother is going to be very cross with me when she finds out I've kept this from her. Tell me, boy, why are you dressed as a Gerudo and why do you take their side?"

Link sat up from his plank and took the wrap off his hand. "I was orphaned when I was very small. Everyone who saw this mark refused to come near me, except for a pair of kind old Gerudo women. They took me back to their village and everyone took care of me. No one called me a curse or a burden. But everyone spoke of how they were shunned by the Hylians. They wanted me to know that no matter how badly the Hylians treated them, they still loved me regardless of my origins."

"That's when I heard about _you_ , Prince Ganondorf," Link said with a smile. "You think the Gerudo cast out your mother. Have you or your mother ever tried to reconnect with them? I know the chief at the time was pretty sour over the relationship, but the new chief Nabooru is really nice. And your Gerudo grandmothers are actually really proud of you. You're going to be king of Hyrule someday, and can unite everyone!"

Ganondorf thought for a moment, before unlocking the cell and stepping inside. "Let's say I believe you, you really are Link, the hero of legend and that mark on your hand is legitimate. Why should I even bother entertaining your ideas? Everyone knows I'm a powder keg waiting to blow, even Grandmother looks at me sometimes like I'm living on borrowed time. The only one who ever leveled with me was my mother, who was taken by illness three years ago. What can you possibly do for me?"

"I can be your friend. I'm sure no one else understands the burden of carrying a piece of the Triforce," Link said as he picked up the prince's right hand and turned it in his own. "People dislike me because I'm crazy-"

"You're crazy?"

"Let me finish! I hear voices. All different voices, some good, some bad. Auntie Koume says it's the whispers of those who have held the piece before me. I zone out sometimes, too. Auntie Kotake says it's because a previous me was robbed of his childhood, and was terribly traumatized by it. But as long as I have somebody with me when I konk out, I'll be okay. How about you, anything like that?"

Ganondorf nodded, and told Link about the time he destroyed his bedroom after a horrible nightmare involving an execution and a dark mirror. "Grandmother says I have an overactive imagination, but that's a lie. She's the Bearer of Wisdom, she has to know what I see aren't simple nightmares."

Link wrapped his arm around the prince's shoulder. "It's okay, Prince Ganondorf. I'll be your friend. We'll go talk to your grandmother together. Then maybe I can take you to meet Auntie Koume and Auntie Kotake?"

"Don't get ahead of yourself, kid. You still have to serve out your sentence for thievery."

"Aww, how long is that?!" Link pouted.

"Until I determine that you've learned your lesson. But don't worry, I'll come visit you every night and make sure you're healthy," Ganondorf laughed. "I'll have to make sure you get a bath every now and then too. Plus I have to move you to one of our 'high security' cells. Actually, it should be near my own chambers so I can keep an eye on you. Sneaky boy..."

Link then realized that deep down, Ganondorf was truly elated to finally have a friend to confide in. "If you insist, Your Highness. But I also demand three meals a day instead of two."

"Are you crazy, you'll be getting four. I can't have my new friend and sparring partner looking like a twig!"

The two boys laughed as they exited the dungeon. Elsewhere in the castle, Queen Zelda smiled as she felt her Triforce resonating. The final piece of the puzzle had been found, and could now balance out her rambunctious grandson's temper. Perhaps then, it was time to mend the rift she had caused all those years ago...


	2. Chapter 2

"So, if you are Gerudo, where are the others? Gerudo never travel alone." Prince Ganondorf asked as he dragged Link through the castle halls. "I didn't see any out and about today, not even the ones who work for the town merchants."

"Leggo, you're pulling me too hard! And where'd you get your info about the Gerudo, anyway? _Girls looking for mates_ travel in pairs," Link corrected, rubbing his sore arm. "That's where one of your goons scratched me. But anyway, single Gerudo go out all the time. There's a test to pass. If you can handle a leever swarm with only a polearm, then you're allowed to go into town by yourself. But a lot of the girls don't, because more often than not, you never come back..."

Ganondorf gave Link a sour look. "Then the rumors are true, about the slave trades..."

"Yes. Auntie Koume and Auntie Kotake weren't going to let me go out into town for the same reason," Link mumbled. "I'm 'desirable'."

Ganondorf laughed, a touch of red lighting his cheeks. "Desirable... But you're very clearly Hylian. And a male, at any rate. Men make terrible maids."

Link looked up at the much taller prince, and thought better of correcting him. He knew he wasn't a real Gerudo, but the Gerudo were his family. Plus, the prince must be terribly sheltered to think that the slave trade was only for manual labor...

Ganondorf stopped and grabbed Link's shoulder. "Hey, I just realized. You haven't eaten yet, have you? I'll have the cooks work up the best and biggest feast they can muster. We have to welcome you to Hyrule, after all!"

The more Link talked with him, the more he realized that the Prince of Hyrule was still a young man at heart. Link was always told that he was born in year of the rabbit, if he remembered right Ganondorf was year of the boar and thus five years older. But the prince was acting like a schoolchild given a new puppy. Not at all like a twenty year old commander.

"I'll see if I can get the tailor to make you some new clothes before the feast. No offense but your clothing right now is literally raggy."

"Hey! I like my clothes," Link protested.

"This is a castle, not the desert. You have to be dressed for the occasion! Imagine if Father or Grandmother saw you looking like that. How do you think they'd react?"

"...I'd be appalled," came a reply.

"Right, see?"

But Link didn't see, because he was busy scrambling into a bow. "What are you doing? Get up," Ganondorf prodded, until he realized someone else had joined the conversation.

"Grandmother!" The prince was red in the face. He had hoped to get Link cleaned up before introducing him...

The stately Queen Zelda, leader of Hyrule through thick and thin... She was known for taking charge of her kingdom, the first Zelda in history to take the throne without a king. She fought alongside her armies, negotiated for her people without arbitrators, and in times of poverty, donated castle food to the townsfolk and imposed the same rations on herself and the castle staff as on the people.

Those more steeped in tradition insisted she take a husband, that the day to day pressures of ruling a kingdom were too much for a young lady to bear. She responded to such criticisms by driving a sword through the heavy oak meeting table, and declared that only someone who could remove it was worthy of marrying her.

It amused Zelda to no end, watching men from all over the land come and try to pry the blade from its resting place. She laughed as they tried every trick imaginable- chains, setting the table ablaze, driving it down further. Finally, when she'd had enough, she asked her bodyguard to clear it away. He nonchalantly walked over to the table and pulled the sword out, revealing to everyone that Zelda had enchanted the sword so that only a Sheikah may pull it out. And every single Sheikah in the kingdom knew who that spell was meant for, the man who already had Zelda's heart- Sheik, the son of Zelda's nursemaid.

The pair had one son, Agahnim, who in turn fathered Ganondorf. And unfortunately for Zelda, both her son and grandson took after Sheik. Sheik was stoic in his role as Zelda's bodyguard, but as Prince Consort he was lively as could be. Every spare moment was spent playing with Agahnim, teaching him magic and fighting skills, riding, and being as involved with the kingdom as possible. Having inherited his father's enthusiasm, Agahnim tried to make friends with the Gerudo. The poor boy failed, but came away with a wife and son who had just as much of his grandfather in him.

Queen Zelda pushed past her dumbstruck grandson and stared at the boy on the floor, at the mark on his exposed left hand. Chuckling to herself, she turned to Ganondorf. "Why is this boy lying on the ground? That mark on his hand, is it not the same as your own? As my own?"

Ganondorf answered with a bow, "Yes, Gran- Your Majesty."

"Then why is he groveling on the floor? Rise, young one. Forget what nonsense my grandson has put into your head about propriety. Stand before me with pride." Queen Zelda watched as the boy- quite a _scrawny_ boy- stood to greet her. When she saw the blue of his eyes, she couldn't help but smile.

"M-my name is L-Link, Your M-Majesty..."

"I am well aware who you are, Link of the forest. I knew your grandmother quite well, a shame your family came to such ruin. Come boys, we will adjourn to my study where I will answer your questions." Queen Zelda turned on her heels, her silver braid swinging behind her. The boys followed her to a grand library, with a small office to the side.

Link barely gave the queen time to sit down before throwing questions at her. "You knew my grandmother?! But I'm an orphan! How come you said my family came to ruin? What's going on with my family? Oh, not that it matters, Auntie Koume and Auntie Kotake are my family now..." Link sat in a chair and pulled his knees to his chest. "The Gerudo are my family... I'm an orphan... Nobody wanted me... the moon fell down..."

Queen Zelda and Ganondorf watched as Link started shaking and rocking back and forth in his seat. Ganondorf ran over and wrapped his arms around the boy's shoulders to try and calm him down. "This must be one of the episodes he told me about in the dungeon. He said it's because he's crazy...?"

"No, not craziness," Queen Zelda corrected. "It is a result of his divine gift. Courage does not come without a price, and in this instance, that price is the weight of one's past deeds. Stay and comfort him, Ganondorf. When he is calm see him to bed, and we can continue our discussion another time."

Ganondorf waited for his grandmother to leave, before taking his cape off and wrapping it snuggly around Link. "It's okay, whatever you're seeing isn't real. Come on, wake up Link!"

"They said they were fine... that they'd face the morning together... morning never came..." Head still buried, Link began humming a strange tune, almost like the tune Ganondorf heard in the temple in Castle Town. It then degenerated into a song he recognized as his grandmother's lullaby, though Link missed quite a few notes.

"...Would you like me to sing Grandmother's lullaby for you Link? I can't sing it as well as Grandpa can, but it's worth a try, I guess." Ganondorf picked Link up from the chair and laid him on the lounge in the corner, then sat beside him.

"Here we go..."

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 **A/N: Yes, I totally named Ganon's daddy Agahnim. It makes sense, if you think about it! Zelda marries Sheik, their baby would be part Sheikah. Agahnim looks like a Sheikah. Ganon looks like Agahnim. Problem solved. ;)**


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Remember this story? :3

I'm going to try and remember where I was going with this, and continue. It's a nice friendship story with a little twist on the Ganondorf/Link placement. I always did like stories where Link was raised outside of the usual forest setting.

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Link had the best sleep of his life that night. No nightmares, a warm blanket, nuzzled against a big, soft pillow...

"Aww, how adorable!"

Link's eyes sprung open at the strange voice, and he turned to see a tall, pale man with blond hair and royal finery smiling back at him. But more importantly, that big soft pillow he was enjoying turned out to be Prince Ganondorf's lap. "Ahh!"

Ganondorf stirred from the commotion, and grumbled. "Father, what are you doing, we were sleeping..."

Crown Prince Agahnim laughed at his son's groggy scolding. "I just came to meet your new friend. Mother said that the two of you were close, but I didn't realize she meant THAT kind of close..."

Link turned red as an apple while Ganondorf scrambled to stand. "Father, how inconsiderate! Link is our guest, don't tease him! I'll tell Grandpa..."

"Wait, don't do that!" Agahnim yelped, and nearly started groveling. Prince Consort Sheik was always nagging him for being too hard on Ganondorf, even more so since the boy's mother died. Whenever Sheik found out that his grandson was being picked on, he returned it twice as hard to the culprit, son or not.

"Fine," Ganondorf answered, pulling his father back up. "Father, this is Link. Link, this is my horrible trickster of a father, Crown Prince Agahnim."

Link stood and gave the crown prince a bow, which he returned. "It's nice to meet you, sir. My aunties said that you were charming, if somewhat intimidating. But that's a good quality in a future king..."

"Ha, don't flatter me. Besides, the way things are going, Mother intends to live forever so I won't even have to worry about it," Agahnim joked. "Kidding aside, when Ganondorf turns thirty years of age, I intend to hand my rank over to him. So he's going to need a good friend to help him through the rough spots. Can you handle that, Link?"

Link nodded with a smile, while Ganondorf did everything he could to shoo the crown prince from the room. As he watched the scuffle, he could definitely see a family resemblance. "I see where you get your cuteness from."

"Hey! Don't think that just because I'm showing you kindness, you have the right to call me 'cute'," Ganondorf replied, turning away so Link wouldn't see the blush on his face. "I can't afford to be soft, I'm in charge of the military. Imagine what the soldiers would say if they caught you sleeping on my lap, for instance!"

"I may not remember what happens during my episodes, but I definitely remember being in my own chair before it started," Link snapped back. "So that means YOU somehow picked me up and put me in your lap. And I sure as heck didn't take your clothes off and put them on myself!" He may have sounded agitated, but from the way he snuggled into the cape it was clear Link was appreciative.

* * *

"So where are you taking me?"

"The tailor," Ganondorf replied as he dragged Link down the hall. "I can't take you to the kitchen without covering you up. If the women see you in those rags, they might faint."

"I was already in the kitchen wearing 'these rags', and nobody fainted," Link grumbled. "What's wrong with the way I dress? Is it because I'm not highborn?"

Ganondorf stopped and turned to Link, confused. "I don't understand, you mean you're satisfied with those clothes? They are torn, and in some places threadbare. How can you stay warm?"

"I live in the desert, why do I need to stay warm?" Link retorted. "You just don't think my clothes are up to your standards. I'll admit they're dirty, but you have to realize I can have a different style than you and not be a tramp."

Ganondorf suddenly realized that he had offended Link with his comments. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize you actually wanted to wear such minimal garments. But surely your feet hurt? There's hardly any leather left on your soles!"

"I'll take some new shoes," he admitted, "but in the future, you need to be a little more humble. Look at things from your subjects' points of view." Link watched Ganondorf shrug, and it made him think that perhaps the prince had a tough time putting himself in other people's shoes.

"It's okay, Ganny," Link said as he suddenly slapped Ganondorf's back. "Neither of us was gifted with wisdom, that's what your Grandmother has. I'm crazy and you're unstable- we're perfect for each other, right?"

"Unstable...?"

Link nodded. "Yeah, nobody's perfect. Now can we eat first? I'm still really hungry..."


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Another update to a forgotten story? What a week for you readers! ;) I found most of this chapter in my stories folder, and honestly forgot I wrote it. I don't mean to brag, but I was surprised at how good it was. I kept reading and thought "man, I hope I didn't stop in the middle of a thought". Guess what. :S I think I figured out where I was going when I stopped, but I still can't remember where all I was headed. Got to make it up as I go...

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Link wore Ganondorf's cape and his new shoes into the dining hall, where Ganondorf had arranged for a nice sized lunch to be served alongside several exquisite desserts.

"That's what I'm talking about! See, Link, this is how you welcome a guest to Hyrule Castle," Ganondorf boasted. "Here, sit and help yourself!" But Link wouldn't budge from his spot, and Ganondorf started to get concerned. "...Link? Is something wrong?"

"Yeah," he said, and pointed to one of the three girls serving the meal. "Why are you making that girl serve us?"

Ganondorf looked over at the servant girls, and seeing nothing out of the ordinary, shrugged his shoulders. They were just servant girls. "It's their job?"

The servant girl in question started getting nervous that she did something wrong, until Link ran over and hugged her. "They don't mistreat you, do they? Are you getting paid? If you want to go home, I'll take you back myself!"

Ganondorf's face got red, and he hurriedly ran over to apologize. "Link! Are you having another episode? I'm so sorry, miss..." When Ganondorf approached, he noticed that the girl had red hair tucked up under her bonnet and a slight tan, but was otherwise normal.

"Gan, you have to help this poor girl," Link pleaded. "It's okay, we'll save you, sister."

"Link, all the castle servants receive a stipend and living quarters, unless they have a homestead of their own," Ganondorf explained. "Apprentices and indentured servants are the only ones who have obligations to serve, others are free to leave whenever they wish."

Link looked to the girl, then to the other two servants who were whispering to one another. Making up his mind, he walked over to them and asked, "Do you have a matron?"

"Uh, why yes, Sir, of course we do," one of them replied.

"And does she yell at you if you don't do your job?"

"Sometimes," the other girl answered.

"Does she yell at her more?" he asked, pointing to the red haired servant girl.

The two girls kept silent, but the red haired girl murmured an affirmative answer just loud enough for Ganondorf to hear.

"Ganondorf, can't you see that she's one of my Gerudo sisters?" Link said, running over to her and covering her with the prince's cape. "I'll bet her or her mother was part of the slave trade, and somehow she ended up working here because she could pass for Hylian."

"...This is preposterous," Ganondorf muttered. "Grandfather and his staff oversee accounting, and I know they wouldn't hire slaves. Someone must have stolen her rightful wage after she was brought in."

"Well, what about this matron?" Link suggested.

"I'll have to look into it," Ganondorf replied. He dismissed the two Hylian servants, ordering their silence and giving them an extra red rupee each for the trouble, while Link clung to the Gerudo servant and made her join in their lunch.

"...I'm so sorry this has happened, young lady," Ganondorf apologized, his head bowed. "I mean, slavery happening right under my nose..."

"It's okay, Your Majesty," the girl replied. "I've been treated very well here compared to some of the tales I've heard about other girls."

Just as Ganondorf made to speak, his father entered the room. Ganondorf jumped up from his seat and called him over. "Father, father! Oh, good timing! We need your assistance."

"I came looking for you two because Mother wishes to speak with you," Agahnim said as he approached. "...Did you two really need all this food?"

"Your Majesty, this girl is a Gerudo who was forced to work here as a slave!" Link blurted out, causing Agahnim to choke on the grape he stole from table.

"I beg your pardon? Son, is he telling the truth?"

"Take off your bonnet, miss," Ganondorf ordered, so the girl removed her cap and let her red ringlets tumble down her cheeks. Against her tan skin and her amber eyes, the hair made her heritage unmistakable.

"Oh my," Agahnim gasped. "Young lady, what's your name?"

"Well... when I'm working it's Rita but I remember my mother calling me Khatira."

" _Desire_ ," Agahnim replied with a smile. "Do you know where your mother is now, Khatira?"

"No, we were separated when I was a young child. That's when I was sent away to work. Luckily I got sent here when I was eleven. They must have put me in the wrong wagon, because I was supposed to go to a noble's house to be his slave and someone here was supposed to get a boy for a page. The five years I've been here were peaceful compared to what might have been. I thank the Goddess of the Sand every day otherwise I probably would have been raped and thrown out by now."

"That's awful!" Link exclaimed.

"Father, we must make it up to her and return her to the Valley," Ganondorf suggested.

Agahnim raised his hand to calm Ganondorf and Link down. "Hold your horses, boys. Khatira, are you happy here in the castle? We will rectify all the wrongs that have been done to you, and give you back all the pay that has been kept from you, of course. But the last thing I want to do is uproot you from what you know just because it needs improving."

"I don't really mind the work, maybe the yelling," she mumbled.

"Hm. Well, for now, how about I reassign you? I can't have you going back to the ones who were taking advantage of you," Agahnim admitted. "I'll assign you to my son's floor. Since he and Link know of your situation, the two of them will not be alarmed by your presence. I will then alert Her Majesty and the Prince Consort about what has been going on. Slavery will not be tolerated, especially when we've been working so hard for peace."

Agahnim called a guard to escort Khatira to her old room for her things in case there was trouble, then left to arrange her new accommodations. Link and Ganondorf finished their meal, and made themselves presentable for their meeting with the Queen.

"I can't believe this was happening right in my home." Ganondorf shook his head, as the two of them left the dining hall. "Slavery, it's so barbaric! And she says she was lucky to end up in that situation..."

"She _was_ lucky, don't you get it?" Link's temper started to flare, but thankfully there was no desert heat to exacerbate it. "If the _sharmout_ who kidnapped her hadn't screwed up and loaded her onto the wrong wagon, she'd have been horribly abused by some lowlife." Link shook his head. He knew not to get mad at Ganondorf, but he just couldn't help it. Hylian culture annoyed and scared him, and he hoped to fix what he could as soon as possible.


End file.
